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American voters are pushing back on the data center boom, with at least twenty-nine communities passing measures to restrict AI infrastructure. Concerns over rising electricity bills, strained water supplies, and a lack of public oversight are driving the resistance — a sign that the physical cost of AI is becoming a political issue.
Meanwhile, Canva is feeling the pressure of a maturing market. The Australian design giant is cutting twenty-two percent of its workforce as it reports slowing growth for the first time in a decade. It's a reminder that even beloved consumer platforms eventually hit a ceiling, and that the post-pandemic productivity wave isn't carrying everyone forward anymore.
And in the ongoing debate over open source AI, Hugging Face's policy chief is urging the industry to be honest about the trade-offs. Lower costs and greater flexibility come with real risks around safety and competitive advantage — and with Chinese open models gaining serious ground, the question of who shapes the open source ecosystem is anything but settled.
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